Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska first edition cover
Author	John Green
Cover artist	Nolan Gadient
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Young adult novel
Publisher	Dutton Juvenile
Publication date	2005
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	223
ISBN
OCLC	55633822
LC Class	PZ7.G8233 Lo 2005

Looking for Alaska is John Green's first novel, published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, and led the association's list of most-challenged books for 2015 due to profanity and sexually explicit scenes. The story is told through teenager Miles Halter as he enrolls at a boarding school to try to gain a deeper perspective on life, and was inspired by Green's experiences as a high school student.

During the week of July 29, 2012, Looking for Alaska broke into the New York Times best seller list at number ten in Children's Paperback, 385 weeks (more than seven years) after it was released. As of May 3, 2016^[update], it is number four on the New York Times best seller listing for Young Adult Paperback.

Miles Halter leaves Florida to attend Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama for his junior year, quoting François Rabelais's last words: "I go to seek a Great Perhaps". Miles' new roommate, Chip "The Colonel" Martin, ironically nicknames Miles "Pudge" and introduces Pudge to his friends: hip-hop emcee Takumi Hikohito and Alaska Young, a beautiful but emotionally unstable girl. Learning of Pudge's obsession with famous last words, Alaska informs him of Simón Bolívar's: "Damn it. How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" The two make a deal that if Pudge figures out what the labyrinth is, Alaska will find him a girlfriend.

On his first night at Culver Creek, Pudge is kidnapped and thrown into a lake by the Weekday Warriors, rich schoolmates who blame the Colonel and his friends for the expulsion of their friend, Paul. Takumi insists that they are innocent as their friend Marya was also expelled, but Alaska later admits that she told on Marya and Paul to the dean, Mr. Starnes, to save herself from being punished. Alaska sets Pudge up with a Romanian classmate, Lara. Unfortunately, Pudge and Lara have a disastrous date, ending with a concussed Pudge throwing up on Lara. Alaska and Pudge grow closer and he begins to fall in love with her, although she insists on keeping their relationship platonic.

The gang celebrate a series of pranks by drinking and partying, and an inebriated Alaska confides about her mother's death from an aneurysm when she was eight years old. Although she didn't understand at the time, she feels guilty for not calling 911. Pudge figures that her mother's death made Alaska impulsive and rash. He concludes that the labyrinth was a person's suffering and that humans must try to find their way out. Afterwards, Pudge grows closer to Lara, and they start dating. A week later, after another 'celebration', an intoxicated Alaska becomes amorous toward Pudge but tires and they fall asleep together.